Rock Needs River: A Memoir About a Very Open Adoption

Description

From a story first told in the popular New York Times parenting blog comes a funny, touching memoir about a mother who welcomes more than a new daughter into her home. After two years of waiting to adopt-slogging through paperwork and bouncing between hope and despair-a miracle finally happened for Vanessa McGrady. Her sweet baby, Grace, was a dream come true. Then Vanessa made a highly uncommon gesture: when Grace's biological parents became homeless, Vanessa invited them to stay. Without a blueprint for navigating the practical basics of an open adoption or any discussion of expectations or boundaries, the unusual living arrangement became a bottomless well of conflicting emotions and increasingly difficult decisions complicated by missed opportunities, regret, social chaos, and broken hearts. Written with wit, candor, and compassion, Rock Needs River is, ultimately, Vanessa's love letter to her daughter, one that illuminates the universal need for connection and the heroine's journey to find her tribe.

Writer Vanessa McGrady spends time thinking about feminist parenting, high-vibrational food, and badass ways to do things better. She often wonders why people aren't more freaked out about plastic in the oceans. Whether in New York, the Pacific Northwest, or Glendale, California, she is grateful to call each place home. She's lucky and profoundly grateful to be a mom to a magical sprite child named Grace. To learn more about Vanessa, visit www.vanessamcgrady.com.

"The love McGrady feels toward Grace, whom she has dedicated the book and her life to, is the sweet layer of frosting on top on a multilayered cake. An expressive and love-filled tale of adoption and of befriending the biological parents of the adopted child." -Kirkus Reviews "Moving...McGrady's memoir is a touching and honest adoption story." -Publishers Weekly "McGrady chronicles her non-fairy-tale path to parenthood with uncommon candor." -Washington Post "McGrady's adoption story is rare and important." -The Atlantic "[A] complicated, compelling ride." -Bustle "Vanessa McGrady opened her home to the birth parents of her infant daughter when the couple struggled with money problems and, eventually, homelessness. In the same spirit of generosity, she invites readers into her heart and mind. We ride the ups and downs with her as she endures the heartache of miscarriage, responds to difficulties within her own marriage, and tries to forge a balance between helping her daughter's birth parents and maintaining the integrity of her own family. McGrady's candor and courage are breathtaking! I devoured every word." -Jo Robinson, author of Eating on the Wild Side